Jay-Z’s Weed Brand is Falling Apart…But It’s Charging How Much For One Joint??

Jay-Z is the best example of how a superstar rap artist changes course and uses his fame to become a shrewd businessman. He’s made several smart investments that have led to him becoming one of the wealthiest Black people in the country and one of the few Black billionaires in the world. However, one of his more recent investments seems to be on life support.

Hov’s luxury weed brand, Monogram, has reportedly gone through some tough times financially. Launched in 2020, the company was advertised as the next greatest thing in the cannabis industry. Initially receiving a back of more than $575 million, the company estimated that it would gross $300 million during its first year.

Instead, it’s only been losing money, according to SFGate.

Seth Yakatan, a cannabis investor, told the local news outlet that the fall of Monogram was easy to predict since their parent company (also known as The Parent Company), was spending a confusingly insane amount of money and the price and quality of the products did not match.

The price of one joint from Monogram is $50, which is more than 10 times the average amount of joints from other cannabis companies.

More from SFGate:

“Like many other things we’ve seen in cannabis surrounding rappers, the hype hasn’t met the reality. Monogram was supposed to be an ultra-premium product, and I don’t know anyone who tried it and thought it was anything more than mid-tier,” Yakatan said.

One of those reviews that considered the brand “mid-tier” was from GQ, who wrote, “When I was first given the OG Handroll to try out at home, the joint looked lumpy and kept going out on its own—I couldn’t get it to stay burning for more than a few seconds.”

The poor quality of the products is just a small part of the company’s problem.

According to SFGate, Monogram’s parent company suffered a $587 million net loss in 2022, leading to it being sold to Gold Flora, who is also in a financial bind.

Since taking ownership of the Monogram, they haven’t sold any of its products, and just this year, posted more than $56 million in losses, per the report from SFGate. Despite this, Jay-Z, the chief visionary officer of Monogram, has stayed silent about the company’s losses and has not commented on its current financial situation.